Pandey. Is this summer but nothing like what we're gonna get into starting, tomorrow, today. The mercury hits a scorching, 35, degrees Celsius the temperatures, are set to rise even further this week and could, even break the all-time, record. Right. Now we. Are facing our, greatest, threat in, thousands. Of years. Climate. Change. For. A long time climate change was something that scientists, were predicting, that would happen in the future. But. That's no longer the case, what we're doing right now is. We're, so rapidly, changing, the climate for, the first time in the world's history people. Can see the impact of climate change. Greatest, owns. Way. To floods, way. To heat waves extreme. Sea level lies all. Of this is happening far, faster than many, of us thought possible. And scientists. Across, the globe are. In no doubt that, at the current rate of warming, we risk a devastating. Future. It's, difficult to see how with the population, the world will actually feel itself it's. Happening, in your world it's happening in my world time is running short there's. Still time but. There isn't much time left. The. Science, is now clear that. Urgent. Action, is needed. We. Can change history right. What, happens now and in, these next few years will. Profoundly affect, the. Next few thousand. Years. What, can be done to, avert disaster, and, ensure. The survival of, our civilizations. And the. Natural world upon. Which we depend. It's. Our future we can't just let us slip away from us. Standing. Here in the English countryside, it. May not seem obvious, but, we. Are facing a man-made, disaster on, a, global scale, in. The. 20, years since I first started talking about the impact, of climate change on our world. Conditions. Have changed far, faster, than I ever imagined. It. May sound frightening but. The scientific, evidence is, that, if we have not taken dramatic. Action within the next decade, we. Could face irreversible. Damage to the natural world and the, collapse of our, societies. We're. Running out of time, but. There is still hope I. Believe. That, if we better understand, the threat we face the. More likely it is that we can avoid such, a catastrophic, future. Our. Climate, is changing, because. Of one simple, fact. Our. World is, getting hotter. We. Have temperature records going back over a hundred years. There. Are dips, and troughs numerous mus that are not as warm as other years. But. What we've seen is this steady and, unremitting. Temperature. Trend. 20. Of the warmest years on record have all occurred in the last 22, years. It's, not just met office records that are showing this trend. Data. From, the US Climate, Center NOAA, the. Japanese. Met Office and, NASA. All. Show the same sharp rise in temperatures. When. Scientists, first became concerned, about these increasing. Temperatures. Nobody. Could be sure exactly what, was driving. For decades of research later. On. Land, at. Sea. And in. The far reaches, of our atmosphere. The. Evidence, is now unequivocal. While. Striking, this that warming, trend cannot. Be explained by natural factors. But. Is caused by human, activities.
In. Particular by. Use of fossil fuels. The, problem is that everything we do our entire economy from the moment you wake up in the morning and turn on the, light or look at your cell phone to the moment, you go to bed at night and even then because your cell phone is still joined power at night I mean we're all using energy all the time and, in the industrialized, world that, energy is almost entirely fossil, fuels. We, burn fossil fuels coal. Gas. And oil to. Power our energy generation. To. Heat our homes to, drive our factories, to, power our cars and, our trains and, travel, around the world. And when we burn fossil fuels. It. Produces, carbon dioxide as, a waste product, carbon. Dioxide. Acts, like a blanket. It, absorbs. The heat radiation. From the Earth's surface and that that. Keeps the surface warmer, than it would be otherwise. The. Problem is what we're doing now is we're adding extra, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases so. We're increasing the thickness, of this blanket. Before. We started to burn coals, the, amount of carbon, dioxide in, the atmosphere was, about 280, parts per million, it's. Now over, 400 parts. Per million. And the, planet, gets warmer and warmer. We, have pumped so much carbon. Dioxide into. Our atmosphere that. Our world is an hour around 1 degree Celsius hotter, than, it was in pre-industrial. Times. This. Warming, is enough, to bring about the raft of effects, we call climate, change. 1. Degree Celsius that may not sound like much but. Is having a dramatic effect, on our weather you warm up the planet well of course you're gonna get more intense and more frequent, heat waves, you're. Gonna dry out the soils, so. You're gonna get worse droughts we. See an extreme heat in southern, Africa, Japan. North, America, in, the UK as well it. Is officially, the hottest day of the year so far. Often. The, question is did climate, change cause a certain, event and, you can never really answer that question but, what scientists, do is to look at whether climate change made a certain event more, or less likely or more or less intense. Last. Year we had a heatwave that was actually the joint warmest, on record alongside. 1976. And, we've been analyzing this, here are the metals. What. That showed us was that the chances. Of that heat wave had increased by about 30 times so, it's now about 30 times more likely that. We had that heatwave than, we would have had without climate, change today the mercury hit a scorching, 35, degrees Celsius so. It doesn't mean to say that every, single weather event is due to climate change, but. What climate change does mean is that with the baseline climate, having changed, then, the frequency, of the extreme temperatures, is, increasing. And. That has a substantial effect. In. November. Last year, when. Temperatures, in towns Australia. Hit, 42. Degrees. Even. Creatures. Specifically. Adapted to heat were. Unable to survive. And. Just. Everywhere. When, we got here in the morning that's the first time really we saw it. They. Were just dead bats as far as the eye can see. There. Is a deafening. Sound of late is fine. And. Just. Don't. Know where to start. So, we just are finding, babies basically. Baby. Attached. To us dead month. Like. All species, flying. Foxes, have ways of dealing with the conditions, of their environment. But. It seems their, usual, cooling, methods are, no longer enough for, the kind of temperatures, Australia. Is now facing, last. Year temperature, records were broken across. The country. Scientists. Have shown that, is, simply inconceivable. That you would see these temperatures without. The. Facts of climate change. We. Saved. About. 350. The. Rest is dead so, over. 11,000, died. And, if you had two more events like we had this missions going. To. Change. You. No. Need. To wake up. I've, seen for myself that. In addition, to the many other threats, they face, animals. Of all kinds are, now struggling, to adapt to rapidly, changing, conditions. Think, of the equator as. Climate. Change occurs. That. Can a central. Part of the world becomes increasingly. Uninhabitable. If. Climate, change is too fast we're, pushing, them off the planet in effect we're. Causing, extinction. Of species already, and. That's. Irreversible. Scientists. Believe that 8%. Of species, are now at threat of extinction, Sony, due to climate change. This. Isn't just about losing wonders, of nature with. The loss of even the smallest organisms. We. Destabilize, and. Ultimately, risk collapsing. The world's ecosystems.
The. Networks, that, support the whole of, life on Earth. What's. Happening, in recent it's really showing us what, one degree Celsius really. Means not just the wildlife for people for their safety for their livelihoods and for their futures. As. Temperatures. Rise. The. Threats we face multiply. Last. Year saw record-breaking. Wildfires. Take hold across, the, Clem. Firefighters. Are working around, the clock to, be seen to, be Billy Australia. Is seeing some of its worst fires, in years. We've. Seen wildfires, break out in Greece, and. Even in the Arctic, wild. Plant sweeping, across some of the coldest countries, on earth we've, seen a tripling, in the extent of wildfire, in the western US, the California. The. Facet swept through California, last year, caused. 24. Billion, dollars, worth of damage a. Hundred. And six people lost, their lives. We're. Not just talking about an inconvenience, we're talking, about people's lives their, livelihoods and their communities, being damaged. -. Even ignition source. What. Big. Maybe. Cigarette. Butts or lightning, and then you need the weather conditions, that are conducive to, that fire in that fire spreading. Research. Has shown that the chances, of having these very hot dry, conditions has, increased, as a result of climate change. I was, a dead-end road so we knew that it was our only option to, drive forward. And all, sides of the, road just can completely, engulfed, in flames. Explode. He's. Going dad dad we're gonna die we're gonna die and, I said no we're gonna be fine you know. I. Stayed. Calm oh I think being a father you trying to keep your son calm - at that point. We. Could hear he's literally, exploding, falling, all around us, a. Lodge. Branch, run right over the top of the car the. Whole top of the roof was burning, and we didn't realize it and. There was a tree, down. That. Was the moment when I really thought that we. Might die. I. Decided. To put the car in reverse I, had to drive backwards through everything we had already passed through to, the lakeshore. And, this one little boat was dominated, watching, the fire and we were able to wave them in to, help us get out of there. That. To me was just a miracle. But. It's not just through extreme. Heat events that. Climate, change is, having an effect it's. Changing, our weather systems, in other, ways. This. Is a basic result of physics with, the degree sizes, at warming there's, more moisture evaporating. Off the oceans. When. There's more moisture in the air you're gonna get more rain. You're gonna get super storms, and force flooding events. We. Are seeing the impacts of climate change now play, out in real time they're no longer subtle. You've. Had the worst rain. In China. In, in, Japan, you've, had a deluge in, Kerala, the, crisis. Deepens, for hundreds, of thousands, in Kerala. Whilst, they can't all be attributed, to climate change. Last. Year's extreme, weather events. Meant. That millions, of people needed. Humanitarian aid. Join, the dots it's.
Happening, It's happening in, your world it's happening, in my world and, let's. Be very clear about this it is, going to get much worse. Climate. Change goes, far, beyond, the weather. Thousands. Of miles away and out of sight of most of us another. Threat is building. Earth's. Ice, frozen. For, millennia, is. Melting. Earth. Temperature is risen by what, most people would think is a small, amount over the past century mile, one degree centigrade and that's too, much for a size to withstand. In. The last year we've had a global assessment of, ice. Losses, from Antarctica, run from Greenland, and they, tell, us that things are worse than we'd, expected. The. Greenland ice sheet is melting. It's, lost 4 trillion, tons of ice and. It's losing five times as much ice today as it was 25 years ago. If. You go, to the southern hemisphere in. The past most. Of the models predicted that Antarctica, would grow that's. Not the, case. Antarctica. Is losing three times as much ice today as, it was 25 years ago. In. Antarctica, really small changes, in ocean temperature in, particular melt, a lot of ice. The. Ocean is only about, half a degree centigrade, warmer than it should be. But. That's melting, colossal, amounts of ice from enormous. Glaciers. The. Water that melts from the ice sheets ends. Up in one place and, that's the oceans and that's, when, it starts to affect people, around, the rest of the planet. Sea-level, has been stable, for several thousand, years. But. If the ice sheets lose. Icebergs. Faster. And faster to, the ocean and sea level goes up. We. Know that sea level has already risen, by, about 20 centimeters, in the last hundred years. Rising. Seeds are displacing. Hundreds, of thousands, of people, from already vulnerable, coastal. Areas in the, South Pacific. Indonesia. Bangladesh. The. Impact on families is. Going. To be something that I don't think we, could ever prepare for. In. The United States Louisiana.
Is On the front line of this climate crisis, it's. A losing land at one of the fastest rates on the planet, at. About. The rate of a football field every 45, minutes. The, eel Dajjal, was, once home to 400. People. But. Subsidence. Caused by oil and gas extraction and now, rising, seas means, that in the last six decades much. Of it has, disappeared. Before. This, was all lad. But. Due to sea, level rise slowly. But, surely it's. Washing, away. What we looking at right here is. Where. I was born and raised in. 1946. It's, a very. Very sad to, see what happened to my, mom and dad's home. And what they. Raised is that I. Wanted. To finish my life as well over here. For, the people on elders no Charles, they're running out of options. And now what we see is just 10%, of what, used to be there. We. Have been working with the state to, move an entire community this, is the first time the, federal government, of the United States has offered dollars. For, the, relocation of, folks due to climate change. When, it comes to the relocation this, is the only place. They're ever known that's home I, don't. Want to abandon it I don't. Want to forget it. A lot, of people say that this. Land that were living like won't be here in 20. Years from now and, yeah that's kind of hard to you know I think about like where you grew up isn't gonna be here anymore. The, residents, of iljin jean-charles have. Been labeled, as the first climate refugees, in the United States and that. May be true but what. We know for sure is that they won't be the last. See. Levels, are not only increased, by melting, ice. The. World's oceans, are expanding, because. They're getting warmer. Over. 90 percent of the increased, heat trapped, in our atmosphere has. Been stored in the oceans. I've. Witnessed the, devastating. Effect this is having. In. The. Last three years. Repeated. Heat stress has. Caused a third of the world's corals, to, first breach and, then. Die. Our. Generation, is going to be responsible, for the loss of one of the most majestic. Ecosystems. On the face of the earth. We're. Literally watching. The, death of, this. Natural. Wonder. In, many ways what's, happening, now across the world doesn't. Come as a surprise. Much. Of what we are now experiencing. Scientists. Warned, about over. 30 years ago. What, we're seeing at the moment is, exactly, what we, predicted, what. I'd like to do today is to start with, dr. James Hanson in, the summer of 1988. I testified. To Congress number. One the. Earth is warmer, in 1988, than at any time in, the history of instrumental, measurements. I said. I was 99%. Confident, that this was a real. Physical. Effect of the, increasing. Carbon dioxide, the, earth is warming by an amount which is too large to be a chance fluctuation. James, Hansen, was absolutely. A pioneer. In trying, to reach the public and politicians, he played a major role there's no doubt in putting climate change on the international agenda those who think were powerless to, do anything about this greenhouse, effect are forgetting about.
The, White House effect the. Short-term, response was, pretty good we. Are the Lord's creatures, the. Trustees, of this planet. The. Politicians, were saying the right things that we should avoid dangerous. Human, made changes. To climate, it's, just that the policies, needed to achieve that, were, never adopted. There. Are many reasons we haven't acted on climate, change science, is definitely part of the story the science is complicated, economist. Had to look at well ok so what are the costs gonna be and then technologists. Had to work out well what actually, can we do about it and. That's. One of the reasons why it took a long time of her government's really to put policies, in place, however. There, was also resistance, let's be honest about this there are incumbent, industries, that then they. Knew about climate change but they didn't really want anything, to, happen. 9. Billion, dollars, the organizations, that had the most to lose back to and climate change were the fossil fuel companies the most profitable industry. Possibly, in the history of mankind making. Huge profits they, wanted to continue that 11. Point, billion dollar profit. Many. Of those industries been, through the oil and gas industry, the fossil fuel industry they. Undertook a quite concerted, campaign, to. Confuse, the. Science that confused the message this, is industry, funded, and industry driven fossil, fuel companies, engage. PR, consultants, who used exactly, the same tactics. That have been used by the tobacco companies. And there's ample documentation the. Basic strategy is to cast doubt on the science see science is so distorted and, misstated to promote the message that we don't really know there, isn't a consensus. There are too many complexities, around climate, science and it will be too expensive to fix anyway we've, had a flat line temperatures, globally, for the last eight years. The. Cycle of denial has worked and. Even. Today the president united states says, that it's not true all. Of this with the global, warming and a, lot of it's a hoax it's a hoax I mean it's a money-making industry ok. In. The UK we, have the climate change act from, 2008. Which, was the first law anywhere, in the world to, make a legally, binding target.
For Reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But. What we've also seen, here, is a number of people in politics, who. Have decided, really to campaign, against, action on climate, change there's plenty of evidence that. Warming. In we. Have bring benefits, as well as maybe disadvantages. The arguments, have been well. Climate change is, happening but it may not be that serious there are huge benefits. From. A warming, Vonage than the IPCC, has ever bought is, fewer, deaths from cold related diseases they. Say we should just adapt to it rather than try to reduce. Greenhouse gas emissions and. Of course that's very attractive to, politicians. Because. To. Decide not to do something it's much more comfortable I think that many of us were willing, to hear that message because we too depend. Upon fossil fuels for our lifestyle, so we're all implicated. In this economic. System but it's not like we're all equally responsible right. There's. No doubt that that seeding, of doubt has slowed. The transition, to a clean energy economy. We. Haven't entirely wasted, the 30 years but it would have been so, easy. To. Solve the problem, if we had started, gradually. To. Make fossil. Fuels more expensive. And. Developed. The technology, is to replace, them. But. We didn't do that. And. Now, there, are consequences. Greenhouse. Gas emissions, have, continued, to rise and, the. Problem, is getting, harder to solve. The. World's great forests, play a vital role in determining. The balance of carbon dioxide in. Our atmosphere. Trees. And plants absorb carbon, dioxide. Using. It to build their leaves stems. And, roots. In. This, process, of photosynthesis. They have sucked up and stored nearly, 1/3 of our emissions. The. Main driver of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions. Forests. Are one of our ways out. They. Are like the lungs of the planet. They. Are big climate, regulators, at a global scale. July. 23rd, 1972. My. Work has always been about monitoring, the land surface enforce. We. Gained new perspective, on ourselves. Since. 1972. Till now Landsat, has been tracking, and taking, pictures of the Earth's surface. It. Offers an ideal meetings. To monitor, change and. In 2008, the. US government says it's open free of charge and accessible. Over the Internet, millions. Of images automatically. It's, just this huge, leap in capability. It. Was only then where we saw the whole planet. And when, you see the hole. It. Was a bit of a revelation. And, yeah. The the alarm bells go off. These. Worn oranjee tones that's forced disturbance, that means forest was removed. We. Didn't know that was going on. Colombia. Peru. Paraguay. Bolivia we. Can go anywhere. And see. Actual. Force, being cleared. It. Usually starts with logging. Rainforests, are cleared and burned. They. Then replace, it with soybeans, rubber. Pasture. For cattle. But. One, of the big drivers, is. Palm oil. Palm. Oil is like a magical. Fruit. We. All have palm oil in our houses right now it's. Found in almost every good, you can think about it's, in soaps it's seen in shampoo, is in chocolate, is in bread is even, in crisps, what. We're doing, accidentally. And inadvertently. Is actually causing, deforestation in, other countries, because, our demand, for this product. That. Means the, natural system. Is not working. Habitats. Are disappearing. But. Also in these high carbon, stock forests. That our centuries-old. Are. Cleared. And burned, co2. Is added to the atmosphere those. Emissions go up and warm the planet. When. You look at our maps our, results are showing that it's just it's it's accelerating. It. Almost looks like a contagion. You know it looks like a, disease. Across the planet I mean that the ever-increasing. Pattern. If you continue this level of deforestation, we'll take it all. And our ability to mitigate. Climate change and, turn the story around becomes, really, vanishingly, small. Trees, are now being cut down and, burnt at, such a rate. That, nearly a third of our carbon dioxide, emissions, are. Caused, by, deforestation. It. Sucks, I'm. A pretty light-hearted optimistic. Guy but, just look at these data you just look at the stories it's like, you. Know. I'd. Like to see some evidence of really. Strong strong. Kind of unified, political. Response, that was, more than an aspiration, on a kind of piece of paper right, that. Would be cool. Looking. Ahead to the future we, know that, if we continue releasing, carbon dioxide into. Our atmosphere. Temperatures. Will keep rising and the, consequences. Will get progressively worse. But. Do we know how much, worse. There. Are thousands, of scientists, around the world in, almost, every, single country working. To understand. What, will happen in the future if we don't act we, don't do more. So. We use really powerful, climate, models which, are numerical. Representations. Of the whole of the earth system the oceans, that land the atmosphere.
And The ice on the planet. And. Then we drive, it with increased. Carbon, dioxide, based on predictions, of the future and then, we see what, the model does. They. Predict, that if we carry on as we are now where. Co2, continues. To increase we, would hit one, and a half degrees global, warming by, between. 2040. And 2050. We're. On course to go through 1.5. Degrees in. Just. A few decades time, and the models differ, slightly as, to exactly when and not, long after that we're. On a trajectory to, go, through two degrees. Whilst. We don't know exactly, what a two degree warmer, world will look like there's. Growing evidence about. The consequences. Of crossing, this threshold. We. Know that with, increased. Storms, increased. Floods, droughts. And heat waves, production. Of food will, be more problematic. It. Really becomes difficult, to see at such levels of warming how are we going to maintain our agriculture. Such that the population in the world can actually feed itself. In. Ensuring people have access to clean, safe drinking water will, become much more difficult. Developing. Countries, that at the frontline of this, battle. Those parts, of the globe which. Will suffer, the most and, the soonest are, not. Those parts the globe which have actually loaded, all those carbon dioxides the atmosphere in the first instance. But. You have to understand, this is also a crisis, for the world. The. Fact is that if the poor are suffering, today then, the rich will also, suffer tomorrow. As we. Look further into the future predicting. How our climate system might, behave becomes. More complex. This. Uncertainty. In in climate, projection, not, least because we. Don't know what our generation, when we're older is going to be doing and what the future generations, are going to be doing. But. Based, on our current trajectory, the. Various, models predict, that by the end of the century our, planet, will be somewhere between three, and six. Degrees, hotter. Even. If we, are looking at the bottom, end of predictions, that's, still really bad. Over. 600. Million people live, in coastal, areas that. Are less than 10 meters above sea level. Some, models predict, if we don't do anything to curb, climate change, then, we could be looking at 80, centimeters. To a meter of sea level wise by. The end of the century. So. Sea level is, dangerous, for, us in the UK as indeed elsewhere the, main impacts, of what might seem a gradual, rise of sea level is the risk from storms, surges. Of sea that we've never seen before. If. We lose all our coastal, cities we've got a different, planet and we've got a economic. Situation. Which is out of control. While, there's, a lot we understand, about what the future might hold the, big, fear is that there may be other more extreme, dangers, lurking, beyond, those we already know about. Scientists. Call these tipping. Points a. Tipping. Point is we're in. A part of the climate system just. A little bit of extra warming, could nudge, it into, a different. State and irreversible. Change. At. The moment which is our ongoing, emissions. That, are driving global temperatures. Up. But. If we cost tipping points, that. Could spiral beyond. Our control. If. We imagine, a map of the world it, turns out that there are climate, tipping points dotted, all around it. Greenland. And West Antarctica. Could, be tipped. Into irreversible meltdown. There. Are major ecosystems. That. We could dip into an alternative, state. For. Example triggering. A climate, induced dieback of the rainforests turning. It into a savanna. Once. You've crossed the tipping point that's it you've triggered, a catastrophic. Change it's, going to carry on getting, even hotter because. You've. Triggered something, that you can't undo. One. Of the potential, tipping, points scientists. Have identified. Involves. A greenhouse, gas locked, underground. We. Know that there's large amounts of methane stored in the permafrost in the, Arctic, and we're worried that ask that permafrost, starts, to actually unfreeze. The, methane, trapped underneath will, start to bubble up. You. Bubbles down in there and. We look down into the ice we, see. White. Pockets, of gas. We. Can see that there are bubbles in the surface layer and then there's a whole column, of bubbles that stacks up. When. This ice sheet melts. The. Gases, are released into, the atmosphere and you can actually hear the gas is coming out. Let's. Have a look. These. Layers that we're doing demonstrates. That the bubbles, contain, methane, as. A very potent greenhouse gas. Methane. Is, 21. Times more powerful, as a greenhouse. Gas than, co2 so. You can imagine a large amount, of gas, burping. Out of the permafrost actually. Causing, acceleration. In, the global warming that we see already, happened. If you look out across the, millions of lakes in the Arctic you start, to wonder just how much methane, all of these lakes could release.
The. Future looks alarming, indeed but. It's not without hope, there. Is still time if we act now with. Determination, and urgency. What. The government's, industries. Nations and we as individuals. Need, to do to. Change our course. At the, 2015. United, Nations. Climate, summit in Paris for. The first time ever nearly. Every country in the world came, to an agreement. It. Set an objective, to, hold temperatures, below two degrees and, try. To limit warming to, 1.5. If, you want to try and keep the global climate to, one and a half degrees we. Have to half out carbon emissions by 2030, and, then, hit zero, carbon, emissions globally, by. 2050. This. Supposes, a huge, challenge, as emissions. Must be cut from almost every, part of the economy but. 25%, come. From how we produce electricity, and, heat and alternatives. Are already, within our grasp it's. Actually not that complicated we need to shift our energy system away from fossil fuels. That produce greenhouse, gases, and and, towards, renewable energies that don't. Every. Country has got a different resource, in. Norway, you've got an awful lot of hydropower. If. You're in India or Morocco. There's lots and lots of Sun, the. Problem, was, that renewables, were, much, more expensive than. Fossil, fuels. What's. Happened recently is, rapid, falls in the price of renewable energy. Solar. Power has led the way with this. Germany. Went first with many of the key technologies and, solar and China really picked up the baton. This. Tremendous, technological innovation, taking place around, the world solar, power is now the cheapest, form of newly installed electricity, in more than 60 countries. We're. Seeing a huge growth in renewable energy, despite. Entrenched. Fossil, fuel interests they've, been unable to stop that transition, and. We've. Got to do even more. In the, UK for, a long time we've been considering future energy sources it, used to be 10 20 years ago that nuclear power offered, a relatively. Cheap way through and one. Really good advantage of nuclear is that, it doesn't produce emissions. But. What's become clearer recently, is that some technologies, are performing, better than others. And. Increasingly, that's been about wind. Here. In the UK we are building some of the biggest offshore. Wind turbines, in the world. The bigger the turbine, the more wind can, be captured. Just, one revolution. Of these blades can. Power a house for, a day. With, the chris capacity. When resources about, to become as cheap, and much cheaper in the future than fossil fuels so. Far around. 30 percent of the uk's electricity. Comes, from renewable. Sources if. That is to continue, to grow we'll, need to develop parallel.
Systems, To, keep our energy reliable. And store. What we produce the. Bit that comes next. That means that we have to decarbonize industry. And we're going to decarbonize the transport, sector. And. That means using, things like electric. Vehicles, battery powered, vehicles, potentially, even hydrogen, powered vehicles. We. Know what we have to do we. Really have to get on and do it and this is the political, decision, the brave decision that needs to be taken do we incur a small cost no, not. Insignificant costs, let's be clear on it or do, we wait and see. The needs to adapt and the, economics, is really clear on this that the course of action are dwarfed. By the cost of inaction. If, we take this path now we, could potentially buy, ourselves time to. Crack some, of the most challenging sources. Of emissions like, aviation. One. Of the major barriers to, obtaining. Electric, flight is the. The. Power that we can get from batteries, today. But. We are seeing strides, being made and seeing. A reduction. In the, weight of, these batteries. Recently. The world's first fully, electric. Plane made. It across, the channel this. Was a single passenger 60. Kilowatt, power jet. Now. We're trying to retrofit a 20-ton aircraft, and get. It flying. We'll. Be replacing one of the engines with an, electric, motor driving, the fan. I'm, going to take these hybrid. Electric systems, and test, them in the air test them in flight at different altitudes and, different temperatures and this, is going to give us the key to understand, how, we might integrate, these systems, for future aircraft designs. To. Limit warming to 1.5. Degrees as. Well as reducing, the amount of carbon dioxide we. Release into the atmosphere we. Need to find ways to, reduce the, vast amount that's already there. There's, a great, deal of interest, in the kind of technologies, that we might have that can actually remove carbon, dioxide from, the atmosphere now. The first thing to say is we already have these technologies and they're called trees. If. We reforest. And reward, vast, areas, of the world then, we can lock up huge. Amounts of carbon that is currently, in the atmosphere. In. The future there are other technologies that might work. Like. Direct air capture. This. Is one of the world's first carbon, collectors. Air. Is sucked into the collector, inside. There is a filter, unit, that. Absorb. Co2. The. Co2 sticks, to the filter. And. Then. It's dissolved, in water and. Under. High pressure we, pop it down to, 1,800, meters this is the same as the depth of the Grand Canyon and, there. It enters the bedrock. This. Is a core, taken. From deep within the ground at, the. Site where we inject it our co2. It's. Bassets the. Water just flows through, these pores, and. React. With, the rock so. The white that we see here is the co2 turned into stone. So. It's not affecting, our atmosphere. Technologies. Like this may be able to help us in the future but, to meet emission, targets, action. Is needed now can. What we do as individuals make. A difference so. The average UK, person, has got, a footprint, of roughly 13. Tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per. Person, per year and that's. Of everything, that they buy and do traced, right back down, the supply chain. And. We. Can pick a few things to start with that will make a really significant, difference we. Should be making our homes as energy, efficient, as possible that, can be as simple as getting, your house insulated, so you waste less energy which by the way will save you money.
Everything. That we buy, even. If we can't see it has, a carbon footprint, from. Smart phones to clothes to furniture, we. Have all become completely, used, to. Buying. Things, produced, using. Fossil, fuels a, lot. Of the time we really, don't know. That. Take. A washing, machine may. Be made out of metal and that starts, off with a mine. An, ore is gonna be taken took a blast furnace to. Extract the metal an enormous, amount of fossil fuel is gonna be used, and then, parts. Have turned, into components. More emissions again. Lastly. Its shipped all over the world to. Arrive, at your local, shop. So. We need to think about buying, less. Physical, products, when, we do so by, higher quality, and then make it last. We've. Been such a wasteful, world especially, in, the more developed parts, of the world you actually can be far less wasteful, and. Not. Affect the quality of your life at all. Food. Is about a quarter of our carbon footprint in the UK if we. Take, three steps, then. We can cut that in half. First. Step just, to eat everything. That we buy when. The UK we waste an enormous, proportion, of our food and. Second. Avoid. Air freighted, food. Which. Is about a hundred times as impactful, as putting on a boat and suddenly, becomes a carbon disaster. Lastly. The most important, thing to do is to, reduce our, meat. And dairy consumption, especially. Beef. And lamb. The. Problem is not traditional. Farming, techniques. Problem. Is with intensive, farming. It. Takes a lot of resources to rear an animal and cows. And sheep are. Especially high impact because they ruminate, which means they burp up methane, and. The science on this is absolutely. Clear-cut. Our. Studies have shown that if we take, these three steps we. Could knock perhaps even two tons of the average UK person's carbon footprint these. Things really do matter they, only get you part of the way but, again if we don't have them we can we won't make the final target. What. Happens, next is up to us all. I truly. Believe that together, we can, bring about the transformative. Change, that, is needed. Your. Influence really kicks in is the. Way that you push for. The cultural change that we need to see and the political change that we need to see people. Being able to make their, voice heard, really. Matters. You. Should not underestimate your. Own power or inertia. Mate your own significance, to, change people's minds and change people's behavior. When. I was younger I had lots of plans. Of. Becoming. Different. Things everything from an. Actor to. Scientists. But. Then my. Teachers, in school told, me about climate. Change. There. Was sort of an eye-opener to, me. The. More I read about it the more I understood, how dangerous. It was for, everyone. I. Stopped. Going to school I stopped talking because, I was just so sad and, then. That. Made me very. Concerned. One, day I decided that this. Was enough I wasn't going to accept this, anymore, my. Future, and everyone else's future is at risk and, nothing. Is being done no, one is doing anything so then. I have to do something. So. I set myself down, on the ground outside the Swedish parliament and I. Decided. That I wasn't going to go, to school. The. First day I said all alone. Then. The second day people, started. Joining me I.
Wouldn't. Have imagined, in. My wildest, dreams that this would happen. It happened so fast, now. Hundreds, and thousands of pupils, follow Europe were not going to school. You. Are on the front pages of the most influential, newspapers, and magazines I thought. That nothing was happening and no, one was doing anything so when I have to do something and I. Want to be able to when I drove the to look back and say that I did what I could back. It. Is amazing. That tens of thousands of children all around the world. Have. Done the same thing as I did. Saying, that why, should we go to school, if. There's, no future and why. Should we learn facts, when the most important, facts, don't. Matter. I've. Learned that you are never too small to make a difference. And. If a few children can get headlines all, over the world just by not going to school then. Imagine, but we could all do together if we really wanted to. Change. Is coming, whether you like it or not, today. Was a day we led by the children, in dozens, of protests, across the country. We. Still have time to turn. Everything around to, to. Pull the emergency brake, and to take, action, but. That. Short. Period of time isn't. Going to last long. There's. A message, for, all of us in, the voices of these young people, it. Is after all their generation. Who will inherit this, dangerous. Legacy. We. Now stand at a unique point in our planet's history, one. Where we must all share, responsibility. Both, for our present, well-being, and for. The future of life, on Earth. Every. One of us has the power to make changes, and make, them now. Our. Wonderful. Natural world and the lives of our children and, grandchildren. And all those who follow them, depend. Upon us doing. So. You.
2019-04-22